Water Quality
Water Quality
Water Filtration
Truth About Water
Chlorination & Fluorination
The water quality that you consume is just as important as the quantity of water you consume.
If you are not filtering your water with a quality system, you are drinking a number of different things in the water. Municipal water is tested at water plants; by the time it travels through all the pipes in the ground, some over 40 years old, and out of your faucet, it is compromised. Oh yeah, and it contains all the substances used to disinfect the water as well as what these disinfectants have killed and that are still in the water.
Most bottled waters are nothing more than packaged municipal water. The standards for drinking water are much higher at treatment plants than they are for bottled water plants.
Clean drinking water is something that the public has taken for granted for the past hundred years. The public has little idea just how contaminated our drinking water has become. Governments are more concerned with providing water that doesn't kill you.
Our environment has changed, new biological transformations are emerging, drinking-water systems are aging, and governments seem more interested in ensuring business in the global marketplace than in ensuring the safety and health of the world citizens.
A National Assessment of Tap Water Quality found 260 contaminants in our nation's tap water; 141 of these contaminants have no enforceable safety limits. Of the 141 unregulated contaminants utilities detected in water supplies between 1998 and 2003, 52 are linked to cancer, 41 to reproductive toxicity, 36 to developmental toxicity, and 16 to immune system damage, according to chemical listings in seven standard government and industry toxicity references. Despite the potential health risks, any concentration of these chemicals in tap water is legal, no matter how high.
People consuming demineralized water (distilled or reverse osmosis) almost always became afflicted with a severe loss of bone density. This loss of bone density directly linked to drinking demineralized water happens when the body is not getting enough minerals from the food or water ingested. It robs calcium from its own bones to neutralize the acid. Demineralized water also has a strong affinity to bond with food supplied minerals so the body never has the opportunity to utilize them and they are expelled in urine.
Before an explanation of the specific contaminants that have been found in drinking water across the United States, it is important to understand the different classifications of water contaminants. Below are the (4) major types of water contamination:
Microbial Pathogens - Pathogens in drinking water are serious health risks. Pathogens are disease-producing microorganisms, which include bacteria (such as giardia lamblia), viruses, and parasites. They get into drinking water when the water source is contaminated by sewage and animal waste, or when wells are improperly sealed and constructed. They can cause gastroenteritis, salmonella infection, dysentery, shigellosis, hepatitis, and giardiasis (a gastrointestinal infection causing diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and gas). The presence of coliform bacteria, which is generally a harmless bacterium, may indicate other contamination to the drinking water system.
Organics - People worry the most about potentially toxic chemicals and metals in water. Only a few of the toxic organic chemicals that occur drinking water are regulated by drinking water standards.
This group of contaminants includes:
Trihalomthanes (THMs) - which are formed when chlorine in treated drinking water combines with naturally occurring organic matter.
Pesticides - including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides .
Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) - which include solvents, degreasers, adhesives, gasoline additives, and fuels additives. Some of the common VOCs are: benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE), styrene, toluene, and vinyl chloride. Possible chronic health effects include cancer, central nervous system disorders, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders, and birth defects.
Inorganics - These contaminants include toxic metals like arsenic, barium, chromium, lead, mercury, and silver. These metals can get into your drinking water from natural sources, industrial processes, and the materials used in your plumbing system. Toxic metals are regulated in public water supplies because they can cause acute poisoning, cancer, and other health effects.
Nitrate is another inorganic contaminant. The nitrate in mineral deposits, fertilizers, sewage, and animal wastes can contaminate water. Nitrate has been associated with "blue baby syndrome" in infants.
Radioactive Elements - Radon is a radioactive contaminant that results from the decay of uranium in soils and rocks. It is usually more of a health concern when it enters a home as a soil gas than when it occurs in water supplies. Radon in air is associated with lung cancer.
